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Title: Appleby and the Ospreys

Subtitle: An Inspector Appleby Mystery

Author: Michael Innes

Narrator: Raymond Adamson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-07-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 57 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Modern Detective

Publisher's Summary:

Available to download for the very first time, the fantastic Inspector Appleby series by celebrated crime writer Michael Innes.

Clusters, a great country house, is troubled by bats, as Lord and Lady Osprey complain to their guests, who include first rate detective, Sir John Appleby. In the matter of bats, Appleby is indifferent, but he is soon faced with a real challenge - the murder of Lord Osprey, stabbed with an ornate dagger in the library.

Legendary character Inspector John Appleby of Scotland Yard inspired a lasting vogue for donnish detective fiction. Innes's detective novels are playfully highbrow and rich in allusions to English literature and to Renaissance art.

Members Reviews:

Bats in the belfry

In this particular Appleby mystery, Sir John, lately retired from Scotland Yard, is lunching at Clusters, the neighboring Osprey estate. Most of the luncheon chit-chat concerns bats in the church belfry, and the reader is gently introduced to the people who will soon be suspects in the murder of Lord Osprey.

As always with Michael Innes's mysteries, you can enjoy "Appleby and the Ospreys" for its sophisticated, veddy upper-class British dialogue, as well as for the fiendish commission and solution of the murder

H.R.F. Keating in his 1987 book, "Crime & Mystery: the 100 Best Books," says this about our literate ex-Commissioner of New Scotland Yard:

"To Appleby one could well apply the words which Michael Innes, writing under his own name in the novella "The Man Who Wrote Detective Stories," employs to describe that hero: 'He loved tumbling out scraps of poetry from a ragbag collection in his mind - and particularly in absurd and extravagant contexts.' "

Since this is a vintage British manor house mystery, the guests and family of Sir Osprey are in the library drinking sherry when a mysterious shadow is seen on the balcony over the moat. Upon investigation, no one is seen, but the mysterious intruder is remembered when Sir Osprey is found, stabbed to death in his library later that evening.

Appleby soon discovers that many people had a motive for killing the late, unlamented lord. The local publican bursts into the manor and threatens to murder an already-dead Sir Osprey, who he claims had been fooling around with his daughter. There is also a valuable coin collection hidden somewhere within the vast architectural pile of Clusters. Supposedly only Sir Osprey knew its whereabouts, but many of his guests are avid numismatists. Did one of them gain access to the coins, then murder his or her host?

Appleby solves the mystery with his usual wit, ingenuity, and aplomb. The bats come to his aid in a very startling manner upon the discovery of the murderer.

Customary Fine Innes, Reader a Bit TOO British

Michael Innis's Appleby, now in retirement, engages once again in crime-solving. Witty, literate, decent, in a word, classy. I took to the very British reader immediately; however, as the book went past mid-point his British accent seemed to go to an extreme and my ease of listening ended. Could be my own hearing. At any rate, there was little I could not understand, though the strain of trying to hear, did decrease the pleasure of the last thirty or so minutes.